A general umbrella for shielding against sunshine and rainwater may also be specially designed to have an interesting appearance. For example, the umbrella may include two ears to look like an animal's head, forming a so-called ear-shaped umbrella.
FIG. 1 shows a general skeleton for a conventional ear-shaped umbrella that typically includes a shaft 11, an upper hub 12 fixedly connected to a top of the shaft 11, a lower hub 13 upward and downward movable along the shaft 11, multiple sets of rib members E, and an umbrella cover 14 connected to and covering a top of the rib members E.
Each set of the rib members E includes a main rib 2 connected at an inner end 21 to the upper hub 12, a first link 41 fixedly connected to a near middle point 23 on the main rib 2, and a stretcher 3 connected at an inner end 31 to the lower hub 13 and at an outer end 32 to the first link 41. Two opposite sets of the rib members E that are intended to form two ears on the umbrella are further separately provided with a fourth link 44 fixedly connected to a near middle point 33 of the stretcher 3, a fifth link 45 fixedly connected to the main rib 2 to locate closer to an outer end of the main rib 2 than the first link 41 does, a third ear-forming rib 5 pivotally connected at an inner end 51 to the fourth link 44, and a fourth ear-forming rib 6 pivotally connected at an inner end 61 to the fifth link 45 and at an outer end 62 to an outer end 52 of the third ear-forming rib 5. The third and the fourth ear-forming rib 5, 6 have upward projected outer ends 52, 62 and together form a fixed and bent shape looked like an animal's ear.
The above-structured conventional ear-shaped umbrella has the following disadvantages in using it:    (1) Unlike actual animal ears that are usually located at two sides of the animal's head, the ear-forming ribs 5, 6 are located near a top of the umbrella and above the first link 41. If the ear-forming ribs 5, 6 were moved to locate at two sides of the umbrella below the first links 41, they would be interfered by the first links 41 from being flatly collapsed.    (2) The conventional ear-forming ribs 5, 6 are fixedly bent members that keep in the bent state instead of flatly bearing against the skeleton when the umbrella is collapsed, and therefore increase the collapsed volume of the umbrella to cause inconvenience in carrying the umbrella.